Doing It Eventually

Category: Site News

My name is Brandon Schatz. If you’re coming to this site for the first time today, chances are you just saw me on the television. I’m sorry about that, but in time, the pain will subside. In the meantime, I thought it might be pertinent to talk about the site, and what we do here.

IT’S A BLOG ABOUT COMICS

Or at least it is in theory. When we started this site, we had a simple goal: to talk about comics and pop culture in a positive and constructive light. Pop culture sites are filled to the brim with people who want to dismantle or shrug at the things that they love, and we wanted something different. We talk about the things we love and we talk about ways the industry and pop culture in general could build instead of rend. We push inclusion, rather than exclusion. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the things that they like without judgement, because their opinions are valid and they matter.

But mostly, it’s a blog about comics.

COMING SOON…

It wasn’t mentioned on the CTV broadcast, but I will be leaving my job as manager at Wizard’s Comics on December 31st for bigger and better things. While I’ve loved my time there, a couple of great opportunities came up that I couldn’t pass up. One of them involves writing a whole lot more, and getting paid to do so. Some of that writing will be here. Some of it’s going to be elsewhere. All of it is going to be tailored to give people a better understanding of comics and the comic book industry in general.

To that effect, we’re starting up a series of newsletters here at the site:

The Mostly Weekly – released most Tuesdays, this clues you into books hitting stands that week

The Monthly Magazine – released on the first Friday of each month, the magazine will show you amazing books hitting stands in the near future

The Almost Daily – amicro-newsletter that will feature a quick shot of content to wake you up in the morning!

If you’re interested in getting into comics, or if you want to buy a comic for someone and don’t know where to start, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m always available to make recommendations @soupytoasterson on Twitter – or if you’re more of the e-mail type, you can send an inquiry off to bschatz-at-comicstheblog.com. I promise I’ll find you something that’s going to be loved, either by yourself or someone else.

Again, thank you for coming to the site. Feel free to poke around, there’s over four years worth of content to explore – and please come back through-out the week.

I’m having one of those problems that aren’t actually a problem. This past Christmas, I finally shook loose a chunk of change large enough to nab me one of those fancy tablet devices I’ve seen two year old kids chewing on at restaurants, and since then, I’ve been having trouble getting articles out. This is entirely my fault, of course: I’ve never been great at compartmentalizing, and so when I was met by the torrent of media available for tablets, I let myself wash away in the stream. Now I’m trying to claw my way back. This might take some time.

The problem is this: between my current physical too-read pile, and the stacks of digital comics I have amassed through ComiXology and Marvel’s Unlimited app, I’ve been spending far too much time trying to figure out what to read next, instead of actually reading things. This leads to some severe whirlwind trips to and from runs both old and new, with ideas for articles swirling in the eddies of every issue. All of those random issues and ideas end up piling up until they become a roiling mass of unintelligible information that I have to force myself to communicate in some way, shape or form. What I used to do is no longer working – so it’s time to take this problem and make things small.

Every day, you’re going to start seeing small random posts from me in and around the larger bits of content that we offer on this site. The intent is to bite off chunks of the roiling mass with an eye to form something bigger and better later. It starts today, with this post. It will continue, hopefully, for the remainder of the year, and beyond. Hey, this is a blog is it not? We’re always talking about how we love those who use the comic book format to the fullest, and here we are, wasting a perfectly good blog with regular articles that have become late-as-hell through the result of deadlocked brains and fatigue. It’s time for content. Let’s get on with the show.

01. You probably noticed the new site design by now, didn’t you? Isn’t it swanky? I like how the header has a Sam Humphries afro.

02. That was a pleasant surprise, actually! Around here, I basically handle zero of the technical aspects that aren’t the podcast, and my responsibility with the site design is basically forgetting to answer Brandon’s texts and direct messages about the latest work-in-progress version of a new site design. I actually think Twitter has had more of a role with this than I have, actually; the last time we redesigned the site, our followers gave feedback to Brandon on the colours when mine was basically, “It’s pretty good.” I’m not always this lazy, I swear.

But that is a good example of how the site works. Brandon wrangles the tech stuff. I try to make sure posts have the same tags and formatting so that the site doesn’t feel as slapdash as it absolutely is, and so that the whole thing feels like the continuous thing I want it to be. Sometimes I silently debate murdering Brandon over saying shit like “kind’ve” and then realize that I don’t really want to have to start doing my own WordPress tech support and write everything. That’s friendship, I guess.

01. Because it wouldn’t be a proper Comics! The Blog celebration without a hefty reminder of futility and shame. Drop a beat, I’m gonna kick this old school, with a numbered list and everything.

02. Two years. The site has been around two whole years, and that’s pretty amazing. Despite my creative impulses, I’ve never been able to make a go of personal projects for longer than a few months, usually fizzling just when people start noticing I’ve been doing something off in my little corner. There are always excuses for this behavior. Life, work, stress, whatever. In the past, this site wouldn’t have made it past its first six months. We would have just been another pair of guys with enough disposable income to buy webspace and nothing more – but instead, we became something great. It’s something I could not have done on my own. Which brings me to James.

Hey everyone, and welcome to the brand new look for Comics! The Blog!We’ve been preparing this slowly in the background for a couple of months now, and we’re really proud of the look.

With the new site, comes a new format. We have a better layout for displaying our main features, and a nicer blog format to help facilitate shorter posts like this. What does it all mean? Whelp, a better looking site, with more content. What’s not to love?

Early Night with James and Brandon! The Show!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we were given the keys to their very own late night talk show? Listen, in our heart of hearts, we know that you’ve secretly been waiting for this moment, whether you’ll admit to it or not. And now it’s here!

For the first time ever, we’ll be taking the stage for our very own live talk show at this year’s Pure Speculationfestival, delivering late night laffs in a prime time spot.

THE DETAILS:

The show takes place on November 17th at the Grant MacEwan Robbins Health Centre, running from 6pm to 7:30. To attend, you must have tickets to PureSpec, so don’t show up and just expect to get in. We love you, but these folks are taking a ridiculous and unnecessary risk by letting us talk to a room full of people for over an hour, and they should be richly compensated for that courage.

You can grab tickets for the full weekend (or just Saturday) online at their website, or you can pop in to Wizard’s Comics or Happy Harbor, where they will gladly give you a full weekend pass in exchange for $40 slim dollars. (An aside: we highly suggest you nab the weekend pass, which grants you FREE ACCESS to the big Taste of PureSpecon Friday. It’s a hoot.)

WHY YOU SHOULD GO:

If the chance to hear our supple voices in person is not enough to tweak your lobes, we have just the thing that’ll do it.

During the show, we’ll be interviewing the darling Matt Fraction and the dapper Kelly Sue DeConnick, writers of book such as Casanova, Invincible Iron Man, Osborn and Captain Marvel!They will be our special Skype-in guests, alongside whatever else we have planned (but can’t quite announce).

It should be a pretty rad time, so drop in, check out PureSpec, and then hit our big show! You’ll be glad you did!